A team of researchers from the University of Málaga and the University of Jaén believe they have discovered Egypt’s oldest tomb oriented toward the winter solstice sunrise. The tomb is located in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa at Aswan in southern Egypt, on the western side of the Nile, opposite Elephantine Island. It is believed to date to the end of the 12th Dynasty, during the reign of the pharaoh Senwosret III (reigned ca. 1878–1840 B.C.) or Amenemhat III (reigned ca. 1859–1813 B.C.).

The tomb was oriented so the sunrise on the winter solstice would shine through its doorway and down a corridor toward a chapel where a niche would have held a statue of the tomb’s occupant—most likely a provincial governor. Given that the days become longer starting on the winter solstice, the solstice symbolized the victory of sunlight over darkness. Ancient Egyptians believed that the sunlight hitting the statue transmitted energy that helped reactivate the vital force of the mummified body, which was buried directly below. To allow the greatest amount of sunlight to reach the chapel, the tomb’s doorway stood around 16 feet tall and was always open. “We found no trace of a door,” says Egyptologist Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano of the University of Jaén, who led the excavation of the tomb. “It’s clear that this entrance was made to receive the sun’s rays.”

According to Lola Joyanes, a professor of architecture at the University of Málaga, the tomb was actually angled 0.74 degrees south of a precise orientation toward the winter solstice sunrise. This appears to have been done intentionally, so that the brightest star in the sky—Sothis, now known as Sirius—would be visible from the tomb’s niche on the summer solstice. The summer solstice generally coincided with the beginning of the annual Nile flood, which was key to Egypt’s agricultural success. As such, both the summer and the winter solstice were associated with resurrection. “The architect or designer of the tomb was a genius,” says Jiménez-Serrano, “and showed great imagination in combining these two celestial events in a single monument.”

Four years after researchers discovered a triple burial in the English village of Cheddington, they have returned to study DNA samples taken from the remains. The burial, which dates to sometime between A.D. 251 and 433, contained two adult women—one between 25 and 29 years old, the other over 45 years old—and a fetus, possibly still in utero. “Simultaneous multiple burials from this time are fairly unusual,” says osteoarchaeologist Sharon Clough of Cotswold Archaeology. “And with there being two adult females and a preterm infant, it was intriguing to know if they were related in some way or if it was just convenient that they died at the same time.”

DNA analysis has revealed that the younger woman and the baby were mother and son. Clough was surprised to learn, however, that the older woman was unrelated to the younger one, but was related to the fetus, most likely as his paternal grandmother or aunt. “It’s not often we get a window into a moment over 1,600 years ago where a family loses three members of three different generations in a short time and chooses to bury them together,” says Clough. “It’s always a great honor and privilege to work with human remains. As a scientist you develop a clinical detachment working with the deceased. But you cannot help but feel the poignancy in this loss.”

Archaeologists excavating at the Paleoindian site of Cooper’s Ferry in western Idaho have unearthed 14 stone projectiles with stems on their ends that date to some 16,000 years ago, making them the earliest such weapons to be discovered in North America. A team led by Oregon State University archaeologist Loren Davis discovered the points buried in two pits that appear to have been dug around the same time. The points were found along with stone waste flakes, bone fragments, and simpler stone tools. “The pits are the size of medium-sized garbage cans,” says Davis. “Maybe they were using them to clean up a dwelling we haven’t found yet.” He notes, however, that the points seem to be in good condition. “Perhaps they were being stored in equipment caches and were intended to be used after people came back to the site,” he says. Another possibility is that the points were retired as part of a ritual. The points’ shape resembles that of stemmed projectiles found in northern Japan that date to around 20,000 years ago. This raises the possibility that the people at Cooper’s Ferry may have been using a technology that originated somewhere around the Asian Pacific Rim.